Frequently Asked Questions Regarding Website Design

Explain the `alt` & `title` tags

The `alt` & `title` tags are the little bits of the html language that tell the browser what to display when the mouse is moved over a picture, graphic or link.

For instance:
alt="A picture of me" will display the words `A picture of me` when the mouse moves over the image (Intenet Explorer). This is a handy way to tell people what the picture is about even if it doesn`t appear on the page as in this example.

But supposing you wanted to help people find out where the plain text links on your site go?

Well you could use the `title="Your Text ABC"` like this: Sample Text. Now the visitor can see where they are likely to go BEFORE they click the link.

There is an added bonus to using `alt` and `title` tags in that some search engines include these bits of information when ranking websites. Only a little bit but every little helps.

Using the `alt` & `title` tags is just good practice and helps to comply with the `Disability Discrimination Act` recently brought to the statute books.